28 February 2010

The switch to HDTV is going to be a real shock to someone on Fort Washington Ave.

"No way!" I muttered to myself when I spotted this television set from a block away. I kept repeating that phrase, well, not exactly that phrase, there was another word between "no" and "way", as I got closer. Somebody was throwing out their DuMont TV set. Their 1955 DuMont RA-301 Console (blonde wood). This is an object so obscure that I could only find one picture on the Internet. I hope somebody grabs this thing before it gets picked up with the trash tomorrow morning.

26 February 2010

On our return we found road to the campus entrance had been closed because a tractor trailer was stuck on the hill. We turned around and went through the back gate. I made a video of the treacherous journey:

The campus was closed soon after we returned. Everyone got to go home early. I walked around the main campus and Morningside Park. It was snowing hard on the main campus:

24 February 2010

Lewisburg, WV was an unexpected pleasure on my trip. It is just down the road from the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs. I first stopped in Lewisburg for lunch before exploring the Lost World Caverns. I liked it so much I changed my trip so I could make another visit.

Lewisburg has an active downtown, complete with several good restaurants, coffeehouses, art galleries and bakeries. I ate twice at the Stardust Cafe and twice bought various baked goods at the Greenbrier Valley Baking Co. (definitely stock up on their granola).

One of the world's three Carnegie Halls is in Lewisburg. The other two being here in New York and in Dunfermline, Scotland.

Lewisburg was the home of Dick Pointer, a slave who was a hero in the battle against the Indians at nearby Fort Donnally in 1778. For his heroics Pointer was made a free man in 1801.

Pointer died a few years before the Mt. Tabor Baptist Church building was constructed in 1836. The church was originally a white congregation but was given to African-American Baptists after the Civil War. I took the picture from the cemetery across the street. I think I could have spent all afternoon looking at that shade of green.

23 February 2010

Another street find! This time it was a parasaurolophus on a traffic signal box at 111th and Broadway. Lucky for me and the other passersby parasaurolophus is a gentle herbivore. I righted the poor para, fed it some lettuce, took an out-of-focus picture, and went on my merry way.

22 February 2010

At top we have the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the oldest house in Manhattan. The house was eleven years old when it served as General Washington's headquarters in September and October of 1776.

Below is "Lafayette and Washington" a replica of a statue Joseph Pulitzer commissioned from Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. The original sculpture was unveiled at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. There it was widely derided (Washington is too short and stout, the pose is goofy). Paris got the original and a department store owner paid for a replica for New York. The city promptly located the statue up at 114th and Manhattan Ave where it would be seen by few.

18 February 2010

It was a foggy, rainy drive between Elkins and Lewisburg (via Green Bank). From the vantage point of mid-February all that green looks really nice.

The red barn was on the way to the Rich Mountain Battlefield, location of an early Civil War skirmish. Not too far out of Elkins I came upon the village of Beverly. Bev looked like a neat little town but I didn't have enough time to explore it. Instead I saw a sign pointing to the battlefield and decided to go there. There was no distance mentioned on the sign so I just assumed it was on the edge of town. Several miles, and six hairpin turns on a muddy gravel road later I came upon the battlefield.

17 February 2010

Has anybody else seen these cherry juices suddenly appear in grocery stores over the past couple of weeks? All of a sudden I've seen them in three different grocery stores. The juice is really good. The Pure Tart Cherry is just that - all cherry juice (from concentrate) and nothing else. Not even sugar so they're on the tart side.

Some digging finds the product press release, which says the 11-oz bottles "retails for $3.99" (I paid $2.89) at "select holistic food stores nationwide". I bought the bottle above at the new Best Yet Market on Frederick Douglass which, while a great and much needed addition to the neighborhood, is neither select or holistic.

I also found a news article about the juice launch. In that the VP of marketing says about his product "It’s very medicinal and old-fashioned. There is nothing hip, fun or sexy about it," which doesn't sound like something you want your VP of marketing to say. Then again, in the same article the company founder says "We want to control the growth. We want to be a little bit small and boutique", thereby explaining why it can be found in an obscure store in Harlem, not to mention bodegas, delis and 7-11s all around town.

People, listen up! If you happen to be in or near North Dakota head to the Fargodome on Thursday because I'm the #1 seed at 140 lbs in the state wrestling tournament.

Bonus! Patti Smith singing "You Light Up My Life" accompanied by the very creepy Joe Brooks on piano (skip to 4:00 to get to the song).

15 February 2010

A few days ago Cheryl wrote about chocolate milk in Kansas. Since I often buy milk in glass bottles at the farmer's market I thought a comparison was in order. If you go to Emporia you can buy Hildebrand Farms Dairy chocolate milk for $2.69/half-gallon. In New York, Milk Thistle Farm sells whole, 2% and skim milk for $4/quart at various greenmarkets and at Whole Foods. Chocolate milk is $3/pint or $9/half-gallon. More than triple the cost of Hildebrand's but as the best chocolate milk on the planet it is worth every cent. Plus on Sundays you get to talk to Ruby.

Curiously, Milk Thistle (as well as Ronnybrook Dairy), only charges a dollar deposit on the bottles. In Emporia, that deposit will cost you $2.75. Clearly, those Kansans are kleptomaniacs.